


Tomorrow Revised

by zarabithia



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: Evil Tim, Multi, Pre-New 52
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-06-25
Updated: 2007-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-20 20:17:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14901272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zarabithia/pseuds/zarabithia
Summary: Tim and Dick discover that remaking the world into your own playground has casualties.





	Tomorrow Revised

It’s Kon that delivers the news, calmly, with one hand pressed against Tim’s back and the other running lazily through Tim’s hair. When he’s above ground, and within the walls of the home he shares with his lovers, the cowl stays off.

Bart likes touching his cheeks, and Kon likes looking into his eyes.

After the lengths Tim went to get them back - to _fix_ this universe the way it should be, including assuring that there would be a Bart who would _join them_ \- Tim is very eager, very happy to please his lovers.

Tim is not as eager to share the news with Dick, because Tim has never forgotten how the news of losing Kon and Bart had ripped through him, and Tim knows that this news will cause Dick similar pain.

Still, he must be told. It is his right to know; and part of Tim hopes that this news will finally be enough to break his once beloved big brother. Maybe once Dick breaks, they can finally be on the same side again.

Reluctantly, Tim pulls away from Kon’s grip, fighting down the panic that always comes when at least one of his lovers isn’t touching him. "The victory sex will have to wait," Tim murmurs against his lover’s mouth.

Kon rolls his eyes - his standard reaction to anything concerning Dick - but nods. "You’ll be making up the delay to me later," he promises, and just as Tim has always done, he ignores the lack of warmth in the thickness of this Kon’s voice.

Batman kisses Superman one more time before heading down into the Cave.

*******

Had he been caught and bound by anyone else, Dick Grayson would have been freed months ago.

But his little brother - Tim still is that, no matter what he’s done - was very thorough in his design of the constraints that bind Dick, and each struggle, each broken and disjointed bone, only cause the restraints to tighten, cutting deeper into his skin. So he’s stuck here, in this bowel of the Cave that Tim carefully designed just for Dick’s prison when his little brother first snapped and decided to do everything in his power to remold the world to get his friends back.

Dick understands that. Not only does he clearly remember how much losing Donna hurt, but lying here in this cold, frequently wet cavern, where the days and nights stretch on without any contact with anyone, it takes all his strength not to struggle to break free. His foot’s been treated for gangrene three times, because he can’t always squash the urge to break free and find his friends.

Whichever ones are still _alive._

Sometimes, to calm himself while he looks for another way out - always another way, Bruce and Clark had both taught him that, and Dick clings to that lesson, now that it’s the only thing left of them - Dick closes his eyes, and pretends it’s just another game he and Roy used to play. Back when it was Speedy and Robin, back when Roy’s green eyes would laugh down at him and challenge him to break free from whatever chains Roy had stuck him into.

Roy’d always had _so much_ faith that’d Dick would be able to break free and _take care of him._

Sometimes, if Dick looks at the cave wall long enough, the black turns the exact same shade as Roy’s hair. That’s when Dick curls up and goes to sleep, the same shade of red coming to him in dreams full of arms and touching that are far more pleasant than the cold solitude of his prison.

But even the isolation is better than the actual occasional visits from Tim. Each visit has brought news of the death of someone else Dick cares about, at the hands of his brother or his brother’s lovers.

Understandably, then, Dick can barely hold back the panic that begins the minute he hears Tim’s footsteps approaching - Tim is quiet, but the skill of listening is the one useless Bat-honed skill Dick _still has_. A gnawing, throbbing pain begins around the previously gangrene infected foot and spreads up through Dick’s body as the cowl and cape came into view through the unbreakable glass that once been housed in the Fortress of Solitude. Now, after Clark’s death, the material was all that stood between Dick and freedom, if he could ever break free of the chains.

The two holes in the wall are barely enough to allow oxygen in or to allow voices to carry, but it's enough for Tim's voice to deliver the message Dick never wanted to hear, no matter how inevitable it was. "Red Arrow and Starfire are dead," Tim says simply, softly, and without pause.

There’s red hair everywhere. In his hands, across his eyes, falling across his chest, and strewn across his sheets.

There’s also a substantial clot in his throat, making it impossible to speak.

***

Tim can see his brother struggling with the news. He still remembers the way it felt, receiving news of both Kon and Bart, so close to one another.

He waits patiently, until Dick finds his voice once again.

"H-h-how could you?" What should be a shout, is a broken, fragile yell and it pains Tim to see his oldest brother so thoroughly weak. He’s glad that their middle brother isn’t here, because Jason would no doubt mock Dick's weakness.

And frankly, Jason is far too good of a hired hand to have to kill him.

"It was necessary. They were in the way."

"Necessary? I _loved_ them!"

Dick is pulling on his chains, ignorant of the blood pulling on his wrists. "If you continue to struggle, you’ll sever an artery," Tim reminds, voice Batman calm.

His caution isn't enough to make Dick stop, and Tim wonders if he’ll have to get Kon or Bart to rush Dick to medical care. But the struggling eventually stops, and blue eyes look up at Tim through a haze of matted hair and beard. "Is it _enough_? Have you finally taken enough away from me that I can say what you’re doing is _wrong_? That I know how you felt when you lost Kon and Bart -"

"No," Tim tempers his voice when he would rather yell. "No, you still have no idea. Because you and everyone else who would stand in my and way wants to do everything in your power to stop me? Where was that rage when it mattered? Where was it when Kon died? Where was it when Bart died? _Superman_ lost a _son_ and _Barry Allen’s grandson_ was brutally murdered, and no one outside of _my_ Teen Titans gave a damn."

"Tim," Dick begins, and his voice is still shaking, still layered with the hurt, but trying so hard to be the last Bat standing.

Tim fondles the gun that murdered both Bruce’s parents and removed Bruce from the equation. He doesn’t give Dick time to get himself pulled together. "You let those _twins_ become Impulse and Kid Flash. Do you know… do you have any idea how _happy_ I was when Kon killed them? Do you know how much we celebrated when their father went back to being dead, the way he should have _stayed_?"

He’s getting dangerously close to yelling, and Dick… Dick isn’t in any shape to have this conversation. His once beloved brother is bleeding, shaking, and tears are flowing in a way they haven’t since Bruce and Clark were eliminated.

Tim takes a deep, silent breath, remembering every step he took to get here. Most easily laid out before him, some detours needed to insure he could have Superman _and_ Flash in his brave new world.

"I wish you’d just give up." Tim sighs and places his hands behind his back. "You’ve lost. There’s nothing you can do to change that. But you can join us, Dick. It’s not too late. Even Jason saw the benefits of compliance. Why can’t you?"

"Because I remember -" Dick’s voice breaks, and the rest of his words are hard to make out. "I remember how things used to be. What _we_ used to stand for."

"That’s your problem, then," Tim answers, angry that his brother is still so stubborn. "Life will continue to get worse as long as you dwell on what _used_ to be."

Batman turns to walk upstairs, signaling the conversation to be over for now.

After all, there’s no point in discussing with Dick the past, when Tim has tomorrow to look forward to.


End file.
